Dhaka: Bangladesh has ‘more than halved’ the number of children who have never been to school since 2000, according to a new UNESCO report published on Thursday.

Yet, the report says, Bangladesh remains one of the 20 countries with the slowest progress towards achieving ‘Education for All’, according to a message received from Paris.

While it is ‘close’ to achieving the goal of Universal Primary Education, it is ‘far’ from achieving gender parity in school and ‘very far’ from cutting its adult literacy rates in half.

On a global level, just one-third of countries have achieved all of the measurable Education for All (EFA) goals set in 2000 and only half of all countries have achieved the most watched goal of universal primary enrolment.

An extra $22 billion a year is needed on top of already ambitious government contributions in order to ensure we achieve the new education targets now being set for 2030.

These are the key findings of the 2015 EFA Global Monitoring Report (GMR) ‘Education for All 2000-2015: Achievements and Challenges’, produced by UNESCO which has tracked progress on these goals for the past 15 years.

‘The world has made tremendous progress towards Education for All,’ said UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova.

‘Despite not meeting the 2015 deadline, millions more children are in school than would have been had the trends of the 1990s persisted.  However, the agenda is far from finished. We need to see specific, well-funded strategies that prioritize the poorest - especially girls-, improve the quality of learning and reduce the literacy gap so that education becomes meaningful and universal.’

Since 2000, many governments significantly increased their spending on education: 38 countries increased their commitment to education by one percentage point or more of GNP.

Bangladesh, meanwhile, decreased its spending, reducing the percent of GNP going to the sector from 2.3% to 2.1%.

‘Unless concerted action is taken and education receives the attention that it failed to get during the past 15 years, millions of children will continue to miss out and the transformative vision of the new Sustainable Development agenda will be jeopardized,’ said GMR Director, Aaron Benavot.

The GMR Director further said, ‘Governments must find ways to mobilise new resources for education. International partners must ensure that aid is distributed to those most in need.’

The GMR recommended that the governments should make at least one year of pre-primary education compulsory. Education must be free: fees for tuition, textbooks, school uniforms and transport must be abolished.

Policymakers should identify and prioritise skills to be acquired by the end of each stage of schooling. Literacy policies should link up with community needs. Teacher training must be gender-focused one.

It said the international community, in partnership with countries, must find the means to bridge the US$22 billion annual finance gap for quality pre-primary and basic education for all by 2030.

Clear education finance targets must be established within the Sustainable Development Goals where none currently exist.